Outside his 9 to 5 job, Arun is better known as rapper and music producer Rotaris.

Recently featured on a 2SER podcast series Get Gig Ready, Rotaris’ music is influenced by his cross-cultural experiences from being born in India, and now being based in Sydney.

A man of many talents, Arun also represented Australia at the Red Bull Paper Wings World Finals in Salzburg, Austria in 2015. Yes, a paper plane flying world championship. Find out about this and more.

1. In a nutshell, my job is to…
Maintain and improve iTeach and Unit Guides, plus any other software development for the Learning Innovation Hub (LIH).

2. My definition of success is…
Accomplishing goals along with the wisdom of knowing what goals to accomplish.

3. A person at Macquarie that inspires me is…
Damian Jurd from the Department of Computing. His work ethic is astounding, and he is just a supremely clever person. He’s also very nice!

4. This year I want to…
Survive . Professionally, I’d like to see the iTeach-MQCMS integration to maturity. Personally, I’d like to release a few more songs this year.

5. As a kid, I was…
A shy, quiet, but playful kid. I was often outside flying paper planes (editor’s note: he has actually represented Australia in the world finals for flying paper planes!), riding a bike, or playing with the neighbouring kids. I slowly fell into more indoor activities like reading (J.R.R. Tolkien was a favourite), drawing (I loved car design!), and watching films.

6. My guilty pleasure is…
Sweet stuff! Chocolate cake, laddus, bubble tea — all of it!

7. I’m scared of…
Lizards, despite the fact I spent the first nine years of my life in India surrounded by them. Or maybe it’s because of this.

8. The most important thing I’ve learned in the last five years is…
How accountability drives action, and the importance of resilience.

9. If I had the day off today, you would find me…
Spending quality time with my partner or doing something related to music. I love learning about and making music — I’ve been rapping and producing for a few years now under the moniker ‘Rotaris’.

10. To me, the best thing about the Macquarie community is…
The general sense of geniality. Macquarie is quite inclusive and friendly

Who are you?

We’re made up of two teams – Strategy and Learning Technology Services.

Our Strategy team includes Tanya Rose, Cathy Rytmeister, Geraldine Timmins, Lilia Mantai, Michael Rampe, Nathan Sollars, Michael Catabay, Kevin Paterson and Lauren Bacigalupo.

Learning Technology Services includes Terrence Collins, Amanda Parker, Fidel Fernando, Alper Yuceozsoy, Alison Schloss, Fiona Hird, Marco Reyes, Shirley Li, Alana Mailey, David Morgan, Eric Shum, Michael Mendoza, Jaymie Parker, Shamim Joarder, Mahbub Hassan, Fransiska Bunadi, Weidong Pan, Arun Neelakandan, Michael Marston, Samantha Zhou and Sandra Wu.

What do you do?

The Learning Innovation Hub is a central expert unit serving the Learning and Teaching community at Macquarie. We inspire, promote and lead transformations in Learning and Teaching and collaborate on university-wide projects to create sustainable processes and products, driven by the Learning for the Future Strategic Framework. We also manage and enhance the learning technologies and systems that support an integrated digital experience for all Macquarie students.

Why do you do it?

Our aim is to work with and support the faculties, offices and units across the University to innovate and strengthen excellence in learning and teaching, improve graduate outcomes and the student experience, and to realise the aims of Learning and Teaching strategic initiatives.

Who do you most frequently work with?

• Faculty L&T teams
• Faculty Academics
• Students
• The Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Learning and Teaching
• Committees: ASQC, SLTC, LTaSCo, Senate
• Executive Group
• Macquarie University International College (MUIC)
• Higher Degree Research Office (HDRO)
• Professional and Community Engagement (PACE)
• Library, including Learning Skills
• Human Resources

What’s a recent achievement you’re proud of?

Productive collaboration across the University community in the development of the Learning Technologies and Spaces Roadmap, an initiative of the Learning for the Future Strategic Framework.

What’s planned for the future?

The Learning Innovation Hub runs a suite of events throughout the year to promote innovation and excellence in learning and teaching including Professional Development Programs, Learning and Teaching Exchanges, Digital Literacies and skills workshops and information sessions on new technologies. Current events are listed on the Events page of the Teche Blog.

The Learning Technologies and Spaces Roadmap is due to launch around March/April 2017, and we will be principally involved in its implementation over the next four years.

In 2017, related to the The Learning Technologies and Spaces Roadmap, we will be investigating some new technologies through a number of Proof of Concept trials.

Where can you learn more?

Please get in touch!

• Location: L3 & 4, C3B and L2, W6B
• Email: learninginnovation@mq.edu.au
• Website: www.mq.edu.au/about/about-the-university/offices-and-units/learning-innovation-hub
• Learning and Teaching Blog: http://teche.ltc.mq.edu.au/
• Events: teche.ltc.mq.edu.au/events/
• Community and Engagement Lead:  Geraldine Timmins, 9850 1018, http://geraldine.timmins@mq.edu.au

Do you have an awesome team? Tell us so we can feature you in an upcoming Spotlight on feature!